Phillies' late rally comes up just short

Kansas City Royals' Billy Butler, center, is surrounded by teammates after he hit a grand slam home run against the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth inning of an MLB baseball game Sunday April 7, 2013, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/H. Rumph Jr)

PHILADELPHIA — The loosely crowned ace of the staff had another bust of a day and now his ERA is up over 10.

The former ace of the staff has his second outing today in an effort to get his down a few notches to 10.

The first week of the Phillies’ season, which essentially culminated Sunday with a confounding 9-8 loss to the Kansas City Royals, is confirmation that April baseball is the easiest way for sensitive pitchers to get all up in arms. Even veteran aces and former aces.

But Cole Hamels doesn’t appear to be overly sensitive anymore, not even when he isn’t pitching like himself.

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“All of us are true competitors,” Hamels said of a Phillies pitching staff that has allowed 41 runs over the first six games. “We’ve all had success in the big leagues and we all expect to have success. ... We can’t stress about the results as much as people want us to stress about it. We have to be confident in what we can do and go out there and execute.”

Either that or Hamels and his fellow April punching bags will have to keep hoping the Phillies’ offense gets a little more consistent ... yes, even on those chilly days when eight runs isn’t enough.

Kansas City first baseman Billy Butler homered, doubled and drove in a club-record tying seven runs as the somewhat rejuvenated Royals took two out of three on this trip to Citizens Bank Park. But in so doing with the early spate of losing, the Phillies can at least claim to have an aptitude for fashioning wild endings.

With a Royals rout in the making, a three-run Jimmy Rollins home run in the ninth inning made this one look competitive. It also keyed an unlikely Phillies rally that wound up with the would-be tying and winning runs in scoring position.

But, after fouling off several pitches from live-wire-armed Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera, Erik Kratz struck out on a sick changeup to end a bid for a second straight night of comeback celebrations.

“He ended up throwing a good pitch that ended up middle-in and looked a little bit different from the other ones, and he got me,” Kratz said. “If I get a heater and I miss it, it’s my fault. If I get a change-up and miss it, it’s my fault.”

OK, so it’s his fault. And yet, Charlie Manuel pointed out, “Kratz had a good at-bat. He ended up striking out, but he’s hitting off a guy throwing 97 (mph) and he’s hitting off a guy that’s throwing the kitchen sink at him.”

And, Manuel added, “We could have scored more runs.”

It wasn’t kitchen residue that Hamels was serving up earlier in the day, either. His velocity seemed up to speed. His command, not so much. But a lot of pitches were closely called balls, which set the stage for a few others to be hit hard.

Hamels (0-2) mostly misfired on 106 pitches through just 5 2/3 innings. He allowed eight earned runs, nine hits and four walks. And most of that mess came after the Phils had delivered a four-run lead to him in the first inning.

Fresh off a dramatic win Saturday night courtesy of Kevin Frandsen’s three-run double in the ninth, the Phils (2-4) started this game with three straight singles in the first. After Ryan Howard struck out for the first of what would be three times, Michael Young and Domonic Brown had RBI singles, then a Kratz sacrifice fly made it 4-0.

But Hamels gave back two runs in the third inning before blowing up in the fifth, as the Royals (3-3) assumed a 6-4 lead on the strength of Butler’s grand slam home run into the shrubs in left-center field.

It was the first time in Hamels’ seven-plus seasons with the Phillies that he’d issued a grand slam. That it came just after he’d issued a fourth walk, mostly via pitches just off the plate or a touch low, Hamels concluded, “I don’t need to comment on that.”

Too sensitive, such things.

“I was trying to stay at the bottom of the zone,” Hamels said. “Really trying to focus; have good angle and make sure everything would hit the bottom of the zone. Unfortunately, I think it was under the zone.”

Butler got to reliever Chad Durbin in the sixth with a two-run single, both runs charged to Hamels, to cap a Kansas City rally that began with Hamels allowing a two-out single to pitcher James Shields.

The Phils spent much of the rest of the game swinging at air and stranding runners while the Royals added another quiet run in the eighth off Jeremy Horst. But in the bottom of the ninth, Rollins hit a 1-0 pitch into the right field stands with one out to bring it to 9-7.

Chase Utley flew out, but Howard, hitting all of .130, promptly drilled a single to center. Michael Young then got his fourth hit on the day, blooping one to right to send reliever Greg Holland to the showers after three batters.

On came Herrera to face pinch-hitter Laynce Nix. He fell into an 0-2 hole before singling to bring the Phils to within a run. So it would be left to Kratz, who watched as the runners were wild pitched over to third and second before starting his string of foul balls.

It would finally end with a near miss.

“I barrelled it up,” Kratz said. “I was just underneath it a couple of times or over the top of it a couple of times. That’s what happens.”

In April or September and everywhere in between, that’s what happens. You just hope it doesn’t happen all the time. Because pitching sometimes doesn’t warm up the way everyone says it can.